For the past week or two, I've noticed a change in how eBay is giving access to ended auction links, and it's driving me CRAZY.
I regularly find myself searching for info on ended auctions, and will open a bunch if tabs to keep track of things. I discovered last week while conducting a survey of past auction results, that none of my tabs were of items that I had clicked on. In fact, they were all for active auction listings.
When you enter into an ended auction listing, there is a small link at the top of the page that says, "See original listing." Well, guess what, when you click on that, it will take you to another completely different item (or one that eBay thinks you'll want to buy, based on their marketing metrics), with another link at the top of that listing, saying, "The listing you’re looking for is no longer available. Check out this similar item we found for you." You then have to click on the link in that heading to end up where you started again, and ONLY THEN will the "See original listing" link work properly! Whew! So it takes four clicks of navigating through a digital eBay maze to get to the same link that used to be accessible in one click. The process is tedious, confusing, and sometimes disorienting (especially if you have multiple tabs open).
This is obviously to drum up marketing/sales for other items on their website, but it is a very unwanted interference to my searching and sharing activities.
I have to know, am I the only one being driven crazy by this new eBay "feature"? Have other people even noticed this? Perhaps some of you don't regularly look at detailed past auction listings... I do hope this is just an "experiment," and that eBay will soon retire this "feature."
